Her only utterances were to vote four times in the 60-minute meeting of the House Committee on Intelligence last Monday.

The 51-page transcript of that meeting is an extraordinary document where several committee members expressed passionate concern about the politicization of the committee and the harm it could do, and maybe more importantly, that only two members of the committee had even reviewed the “underlying intelligence” on which the memo was based.

Rep. Stefanik’s was not one of them.

“It is essentially releasing to the public a book review on a book it has not read,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California.

“I truly believe this is a step too far,” said Rep. Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California. “How irresponsible is it for us to vote to make public something that we have not even viewed ourselves. And we are all going to have egg on our face.”

It is clear to me that the memo’s release has furthered divided our country and weakened our democracy, and not surprisingly made our representatives and their motives more suspect.

Rep. Stefanik is complicit in this.

Others in that meeting seemed to understand that.

Some knew the door they were opening was a bad idea. Sadly, the Republicans on the committee stayed mostly silent.

“When all of this information is made available there will be an accounting for all of us based on what is true,” said Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat from Connecticut. “If it turns out that the majority memo is wrong, there will be hell to pay. If it turns out that the minority memo is wrong, there will be hell to pay. And right now there are two people sitting here who have any sense at all over whether it is right or wrong.”

“And so I guess there is no way around politicizing this,” said Rep. Teri Sewell of Alabama. “It just reeks and smacks of politics. And if that is really where we have come, then it is a sad day to be on this committee. and I never thought I would say that, since I thought this committee was the committee that really took serious our national security and people put their own views and their own party’s interests aside and tried to do what is in the best interests of all of us.”

When I reached out to Rep. Stefanik’s office, I was told she voted to release the memo because she “Is a strong proponent of transparency,” despite the fact she voted against releasing the Democratic response at the same time as the Republican memo. I was also told she “believes the public has a right to know about potential FISA abuses.”

When I asked if Rep Stefanik had read the underlying evidence the memo is based on, Tom Flanagan, Stefanik’s senior adviser and communications director, wrote, “Again, no one, including the FBI, has identified factual errors.”

I also asked him if Rep Stefanik had 100 percent confidence in the memo, and while he did not answer that question directly, he did write that she participated in weekly briefs on the results of these investigative efforts.

In response to the release of the memo, Sen. John McCain had this to say:

“The latest attacks on the FBI and the Department of Justice serve no American interests, no party’s, no presidents, only Putin’s,” Sen. McCain wrote in a statement. “Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the warped lens of politics and manufacturing partisan sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”

Rep. Stefanik had every opportunity during the 60-minute meeting of the House Committee on Intelligence to voice her concerns about the politicization of the committee’s work. Instead, she remained silent.

And when her name was called on whether to release the Republican memo to the public, she responded, “Aye.”

Ken Tingley is editor of The Post-Star and may be reached via email at tingley@poststar.com.

(70) comments

When I asked if Rep Stefanik had read the underlying evidence the memo is based on, Tom Flanagan, Stefanik’s senior adviser and communications director, wrote, “Again, no one, including the FBI, has identified factual errors.”

A rather disingenuous response, at best. Andrew McCabe's request to have the FBI vet this partisan "memo" was denied by the Committee, as was the FBI's request to meet with the Committee on the substance of the "memo."

And yet the Committee and Congresswoman Stefanik continue to crow about their supposed desire for "transparency."

What's transparent here is the House Republicans' desire to act as Donald Trump's handmaidens in an effort to maintain their own political influence.

I believe history will view the House Republicans' actions for what they are: An attempt to give an naked Donald Trump a fig leaf for cover from the Mueller investigation.

It's our right as tax paying US citizens to know the truth! It's obviously true because the FBI is starting to clean house! The FBI and DOJ have no business trying to undermine and or sway the outcome of our elections!

We are. Hillary and the DNC, along with the FBI, paid Steele, a foreign intelligence agent, who in turn used Russian intelligence sources to compile the "dossier". That we do know as a matter of open source testimony, but you don't seem to be worried about your girl commissioning Russian intelligence disinformation for use into our US election process.

I'm willing to withhold judgment on Trump until Mueller finishes up. Obviously, Papadopoulos and Flynn have already pleaded. No need to withhold judgment there. I bet they have some great information too.

This Trump/Russia masquerade is a shame, really. Trump had to to ditch Flynn and surround himself with neocon military brass, resulting in him forgoing the Middle East policies of withdrawal he campaigned on. We now have our ally the Kurds fighting our ally Turkey helped by our ally the Free Syrian Army. And they just shot a Russian jet down and killed the captured pilot. We had our chance to unwind 16 years of this mayhem.

So, you are completely silent about the political bias shown by the FBI? It is clear now that there was political bias shown in the Clinton investigation and the obtaining of the FISA warrants. We should all be very concerned when political interests are used in matters before a secret court. The Democrats and the FBI objected to the release of the Nunes memo on the basis of it endangering national security. It is now clear that there is nothing in that memo that could endanger national security. Mr. Tingley, you are completely silent about that. Please try to be more objective like the journalists of old that I used to respect.

we should all be concerned that there is a fisa court to begin with! the fact that politician use this (imo) surveillance tool for political reasons s/b treason! what appears to be happening here is botarties bot and the buearocracy are guilty as hell

Interesting that you chose the word "implicit" for your headline.... Yes, it would have been nice if Rep S had participated more. But I am sure we have all been in meetings where the outcome was known. She voted yes clearly along party lines... I hardly call that "implicit" in dividing the country. Your choice of "implicit" in the headline clearly shows your own bias. I think an argument could be made your headline is just as 'complicit" in dividing your readership as her silence and vote is.

On this very significant vote, our Representative is hiding behind her staff and will not speak to the public directly. Everyone should be upset by her actions, from Tea Party to Bernie supporters. This is government for the people, this is an acknowledged effort to obstruct justice.

So many times the democrats are screaming that the administration should release documents immediately. Now we have the democrats wanting to first scrutinize a document and that they should decide whether it should be released, obviously after seeing whether or not it supports their cause. This should be the real story instead of interviewing several democrats saying that their opposition isn't playing into their hand. This seams to be one of those articles that are potentially biased.

Perhaps people should read the de-classified April 2017 Memorandum Opinion and Order issued by FISA Court Judge Rosemary M. Collyer, which finds that the FBI has routinely engaged in surveillance of US citizens in violation of FISA (and the 4th Amendment which it was enacted to protect). Once you read this order, you will most likely find that all of the the specific actions of the Obama administration's DOJ exposed in the Senate Intelligence Committee memo are consistent with what the FISA Court itself found, and that it feared are more extensive than already disclosed. I referred to this document in a past comment, but I suppose if people don't see or hear about it in the MSM, it's some sort of houey. So, here's the link:https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/icotr/51117/2016_Cert_FISC_Memo_Opin_Order_Apr_2017.pdf

The problem with most of the media is that they have become parrots of their compatible ideology, not watchdogs of the government. This FISA Order should have been headline news for every outlet, but it was picked up by only a few news sources, and had to be purposefully buried by the MSM.

BTW - since no one on the Senate Intelligence Committee acknowledged that they were shown the "Schiff memo", how could they even vote to release it? You're reporting on it as if it actually exists. Does it? Perhaps it does now, but did it exist then?

Once again Mr. Tingley, you are writing an article biased with a clear political agenda. I have a suggestion: publish the memo and let the public decide. I have read the document and the FACTS are simply stated. What a novel concept! Please, everyone, read the memo YOURSELVES and decide.

Elise is a bought and paid for political puppet. She a beltway insider and never really was a resident of the district (unless summer homes count). She worked in the Bush White House, coached Ryan for the debates when he ran with Romney, knows Rove and is a beneficiary of the fundraising machinery used to funnel military industrial complex money in to lemming like candidates like her. We can do much better in the mid term elections and hopefully this time a strong DEM candidate will emerge, and maybe a strong REP candidate to challenge her in the primary and cause her to lose the party nomination (not likely especially after the way they bought off Doheny). We can't afford people like her in times of constitutional crisis and if you think the POTUS attacks on the Justice Department, Mueller, the FBI and the environment aren't serious enough yet, just wait until the stock market crashes and he starts a war with North Korea to keep us all diverted.

This article is spot-on and the essence of it is exactly what the Democratic candidates must make clear to the voters in the 21st district. This issue was one in which Representative Stefanik could actually prove her commitment to bipartisanship and she totally failed.

You quote a Democrat that answers with a "what if" what if the memo is wrong, the congressman did not say the memo was wrong. The memo describes an FBI putting politics into its investigation by using information from one party against the other party. What if the Republican National Committee had put a similar paper against the Hilary campaign and the DOJ and FBI used this document in a public investigation against Hilary, would you be concerned about politics at the FBI and DOJ.

I see you sad she didn't read the memo, but it also says she did not read the underlying references associated with the memo. It does not say she said either. How do you know? She kept silent. Perhaps what she had to say was already said by someone else. You are putting thoughts into her head and telling everyone unknown supposed facts hoping they cannot think for themselves. The memo is dividing the country between those who understand what is going on and have critical thinking skills and those who depend on journalists to tell them what to think. The country has been divided for years now--before this congresswoman took office. It is about time people get to see the other side talk back, and if they have their own heads on their shoulders, can come to their own conclusions based on true facts and not false summarizations.

Stefanik is a well-schooled professional politician (she's never had another type of job). She tries to create the impression of bipartisanship by voting against her party when it is safe to do so, in a cynical attempt to secure her seat. She claims to be for transparency, but votes to suppress the minority report. Moreover, she has participated in an attack on the independent institutions in our nation that ensure no person is above the law. Laughably, the Nunes memo is a joke, so although her and her cronies intentions were harmful, they shot themselves in the foot.

I guess I don’t understand the point of your article. While you correctly express the views of those opposed to the memos release, like those opinions you fail to specifically tell us why this harms the country. The article just simply quotes the opinions of those in opposition, who claim how harmful and dangerous this is but fail to adequately explain why. By doing so, the article serves as nothing more than a soap box for the opposition of the memos release. I guess I don’t understand why more people are not concerned about the process utilized in obtaining warrants to spy on Americans. The main argument I have heard to this point.. “ The dossier wasn’t a factor “ does not make sense to me. If not a factor, why was it used in the application? And how does anybody know what influenced or what did not influence the judges who ultimately decided to grant the warrant? What is dangerous to me is the possibility that Americans are being subjected to intense servalance absent any just cause. And why did the Democrats refuse to have this investigated? Perhaps this is at least in part why the republicans decided to write and release the memo..

How willing do you think the FBI is going to be to work with Congressional committees designed to oversee them? Releasing this nonsense memo despite their opposition to it setting up an adversarial relationship is one downside. There is no actual point to the memo. No upside.

But again Mr. Tingley, you are totally silent on the misrepresentation by the Democrats that the memo would have national security implications and you don't seem to care about FBI political bias in using a secret FISA court. By being completely one sided Mr. Tingle you are part of the partisan politics of division.

Carter Page has been under surveillance since 2013 because of ties to Russia. He has admitted to being an "informal Kremlin adviser." The questions are why was he also an adviser to Trump and why are Congressional Republicans working so hard to protect him.

Under Title 1 of the FISA, they had to have evidence that an American citizen, Page, was an actual agent of a foreign government. Being an advisor does not even come close. Why, you ask? Well, from 2013 to May 2016 Carter Page was working as an informant (UCE) of the FBI, and helped their 2015 case against Intelligence Officer Evgeny Buryakov and other Russian intelligence operatives working in NY. He was wired and his meetings recorded by the FBI. The Wall Street Journal just put out an article on it Feb, 1. The case was tried in federal court in NY: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/evgeny-buryakov-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court-connection-conspiracy-workKind of odd the FBI would label him a spy during the time he was working for them. Seems to me he was just a FISA excuse.

So, you are ok with what the FBI and DOJ did? You think that government should not be accountable to the people? Interesting. I'll remember that the next time you are blathering about Bob Freeman and open government.

We saw first hand what a divided nation looks like when the dems sat with their sour pussses on during the State of the Union speech. But, I bet you think they were justified. The fact of the matter is that you are a partisan hack who is as inconsistent as you are wrong. Do the entire area a huge favor and retire. Your paper would sell a lot more copies.

So relieved to see Tingley finally take a position on this issue. Stefanik continues to blindly enable and prop up a dangerous president while he dismantles our democracy.

And a growing majority of voters in NY21 are tiring of her claim that she's supports transparency. If she supported transparency:

- she would post her positions in advance of votes- she would announce her district schedule in advance- she would instruct her staff to share positions and voting intentions when constituents phone asking- she would meet with constituents in face-to-face, open-to-the-public, on-the record town hall meetings.

Transparency? Not at all. Her refusal to meet with constituents is downright cowardly. Not a good look for a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

And please don't tell us about the tele-townhall meetings. Her staff pre-screens every single question (allowing them to screen out any challenging questions or any questions that may be too difficult for her to respond to) and they que up "talking points" for her to read when each screened question is finally presented to her. It's not a town-hall, it's highly choreographed commercial advertisement.

Elise - if you don't have the courage to meet with your constituents, perhaps you need to find another line of work.

It's a Republic, and it was attempted to be stolen from the citizens by the CIA, DOS, DOJ and FBI, which J. Edgar Hoover referred to as the real "Seat of Government". The only divide I see is between those who want their Republic back and those who wish to be ruled.

I think the normal procedure would have been for majority and minority, if they couldn't agree on a joint report, to release properly vetted reports simultaneously. It's a long tradition and one that is observed in the Supreme Court in majority, concurring and dissenting opinions.

But what an ugly, abnormal political time we live in! Mr. Tingley, neither you nor I know what the truth is on this matter or many others. We don't know with certainty or even confidence who the good guys are, who the bad guys are, where honest differences of opinion between decent people might exist. It's like trying to read tea leaves.

I think the difficult but responsible thing to do -- for citizens like us -- is to try to hold our condemnation until we have more truth. I sympathize with your view -- it's been hard for me to tolerate the notion that there may be corner-cutting in our justice institutions in the past as well as now, and that some people at the top of the Executive Branch may be of poor character.

But we have to wait. I think it's not appropriate to accuse Rep. Stefanik of complicity because she chose not to die on this particular hill. Yes, she may end up being the bogeyman, but more likely, she just wants to pick her battles. She seems like a pretty straight up conservative -- not a game-player or grandstander like many in Congress. I know she's "ours", so that's why you point to her, but I find your criticism unduly harsh.

She's between a rock and a hard place. I'd have more sympathy if she hadn't been so nasty toward Obama.

At one time not long ago if FBI and DOJ recommended not releasing information Republicans wouldn't have gone against them and set up an oppositional relationship. Now 80 some odd percent of Republicans worship at the Cult of Trump tho. Too bad for her. Republicans are not in the majority. Gotta win some independents too. We'll see how many of them she can convince that making a purely political vote was acceptable.

We can argue about opinions but you cannot debate facts. And the facts are that the FISA court was lied to repeatedly by James Comey in mis representing the basic tenants that the infamous dossier was based on. It is a total LIE. And the average American is smart enough to understand that. Mr. Tingley is, apparently, below average.

You must realize that the release of this memo was a well publicized event, and that most of your readers are aware of the many facts surrounding it that you conveniently overlooked. But you’re the fair and balanced paper only interested in the facts. Next time you’re out looking for people dividing this country, look in the mirror.

Remember when trump said he could step out on fifth avenue and shoot someone,and it wouldnt matter to his followers,and how he loves the ignorant ones.Pretty easy on here to see who fits that description

The truth of the matter is some of the top ranking officials of the FBI are corrupt! Trey Gowdy has inside friends that work for the FBI and they say they are ashamed and the morale in the department is low now. Hillary is as corrupt as they come. Comey was only covering for himself when he reopened the investigation just before election because he figured Hillary would win by a landslide. Drain the Swamp!

This is from the Lawfareblog link in the Pierce post linked to the previous comment.

Over the next few days, a wealth of evidence emerged to suggest that Trump and Sanders were playing fast and loose with the truth. But we now have the documents to prove that decisively. Their disclosure was not a leak but an authorized action by the FBI, which released to us under the Freedom of Information Act more than 100 pages of leadership communications to staff dealing with the firing. This material tells a dramatic story about the FBI’s reaction to the Comey firing—but it is neither a story of gratitude to the president nor a story of an organization in turmoil relieved by a much-needed leadership transition.

Trump's messing with the wrong group of people. I'm stocked up with popcorn.

Fun fact! 35000+ FISA warrants have been requested since 1979. The majority since 2000. Let's assume these are all "legitimate" requests I.e. there is probable cause. Would there not have been thousands of convictions by now? The point being I do not recall ANY real threats that have been bought to light. IMO Edward snowden is a hero. In June of 2013 he informed the world about the MASSIVE SURVEILLANCE OPERATIONS which were illegally gathering private communications on half the world. This bullcrap show should result in the dismissal/prosecution of a rather lsarge group of deep state operatives and politicians. Trump may be guilty but I'm guessing it is fort money laundering. The abuse of trust by political hacks should result in jail timer. Obama, Clinton's(plural) "w" and all the bureaucrats who have illegally used their powers☺

She will win in a landslide, as will Trump in 2020. Republicans will gain in both houses and Trump will appoint another conservative supreme court judge. Then and only then will things get done for the people

Mr. Tingley, You mention again that congresswoman Stefanik did not actually read the underlying documents (the actual application) that resulted in the intelligence Committee issuing the memo. Do you not know that the Justice Department allowed only one member from each party on the committee to view the documents? As my previous comment indicates, I suspect you knew this but, you’re the one purposely trying to divide the country.

So therefore she used the information provided to her to make her decesion. Which is what both sides did. You notice the Republicans didn’t object to the Democrats memo being released.

However the Dems didn’t provide it to the FBI first as the Republicans did.

Then it’s being reported the Schiff n company has released a 10 page memo versus 4 because they’ve loaded it with things that will require redaction. It was obvious from the start because Schiff started loudmouthing before it even left committee that they better not redact anything from the memo etc.

Y’all hate President Trump that’s fine, but the facts are starting to line up of what really happened & if y’all complicit with that shame on you.

Thank God DJT won because this would’ve got swept under the rug. The worse is yet to come & the truth will be scary.

But that’s ok if you choose to side with your party over all else. But I won’t do it.

I was a Democrat most my life, but they’ve gone off the deep end & I don’t think they’re ever coming back. So I jumped ship without looking back.

I always turned to CNN for national news or NBC for local news. But they’ve fallen off the deep end also. Too many people allowing hate of someone to control their rational thinking.

It's representative oversight material which belongs to the American people. It is ultimately up to the people to determine what is true of not. You're arguing for less information being made public, despite the FOIL fights you've undertaken.

"Elusive Elise, Come on Out!" Protest at Stefanik's GOP cocktail party Friday Feb 9 Please RSVP & invite your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/189156035164932 & https://act.indivisible.org/event/local-actions/8222 #ElusiveElise Stefanik has still not had an open Town Hall Meeting with Constituents. But she has time to go to a cocktail party with her buddies from the Party of Putin & Plutocracy. Are you outraged?Let's tell #ElusiveElise that we need a Congress that works for us, not Putin, Trump and corrupt billionaires from Wall St to Moscow.

It is very interesting how we have listened to Mr. Tingley for years supporting FOIL and supporting and quoting Robert Freeman's Committee on Open Government, (Which I agree with). However when the issue does not fit Mr. Tingley's political agenda, he takes a different view. He complains about political division, but he is overwhelmingly partisan and divisive himself

Those of you knocking Mr. Tingley for not supporting the release of this memo are clearly missing the point. It isn't the information that's the issue, it's the distortion of the information for political gain. If the republicans weren't twisting the information then it wouldn't be a problem, but when you've got someone like Nunes, whose demonstrated he can't be trusted, authoring a piece of propaganda then you can hardly blame anyone that doesn't take it at face value. Nunes has shown that he'll do anything to protect Trump. So when Trump goes down so will all of the rats on his ship.

SADLY it’s not propaganda I wish that it was. Try reading the texts of the top FBI agents that got removed from the Trump investigation. Read the memo & then realize as Comey n those tweet snide comments notice they never dispute the facts. Because they know Sadly it’s all true! The only Collusion that’s been shown thus far is between Hillary n the Ukrainians & Russians as well as the latest news of Schiff conspiring with a Ukrainian/Russian having “dirt” on the POTUS that he tried to recover. Go read his assistants emails. They sought follow up on getting the dirt days after Schiff talked to the “Foreign Conspirator” that end up being someone prancing him. Which he fell for hook line & sinker. Schiff is a colluder & possibly a leaker which he did on live TV by the way.

But if you wish to live in famatasy land where the opposing party/ former administration didn’t collude n spy so be it. Nothing will change your mind but the truth is out there. All you have to do is open your eyes & see it. But I know you won’t because you don’t want to believe or know the truth as it really is.

But that’s ok time will reveal the truth! Facts are not propaganda, so if you desire the texts, emails, etc are out there to be read by those who don’t want a partisan win, but rather the truth be had.

If Trump is found to have colluded so be it, charge him I’m ok with it as are most common sense Republicans & Independents.

But sadly the left leaning liberal Democrats can’t or won’t see the truth even when laid at their feet. Whomever colluded with real deal evidence should be punished regardless of their party affiliation!

We didn't need the Nunes memo to know the FBI was politically biased. That has been clearly established by the Strzok and Page text messages that were already released. The memo only provided more information which Mr. Tingley feels we shouldn't see. The Democrats contended that the memo would endanger national security. Now that it is out, I haven't heard anyone that can point to a single specific item in it that would do so.

What a lame column..what ever happened to 'reporting'? Massive corruption in the FBI and DOJ and all you care about is whether or not this memo should have been made public? You should be reporting on who should be going to jail. I can't imagine how liberals like Mr. Tingley would be having complete meltdowns if this same corruption had taken place under Trump's watch. We all know it's true since many have either left their positions or were let go leading up to this information coming out. C'mon Ken...be a real journalist.

You should be reporting on who should be going to jail. ...C'mon Ken...be a real journalist.

So, you consider naming people who should be going to jail to be real journalism? You'd be happy to see newspaper writers opine that Trump and his whole family should go to jail? Liberal that I am I'll at least wait until he's convicted to suggest that.

Welcome to the discussion.

Comments will not be posted if any of the following rules are
violated:
- Comments must be contained to the topic of the articles only.
- Comments must be civil in tone and cannot contain personal
insults directed toward another reader.
- Profanities cannot be used, including abbreviations or
acronyms.
- Comments critical of crime or accident victims, or imply guilt
are not allowed.
- Comments that are potentially libelous, including those that
contain accusations not supported by facts are not allowed.
- Comments that appear to be taunting others who comment are not
allowed.
- Comments should be brief and never more than 1,000 characters.